Body Work on the Yellow Submarine

When we picked this unit up it had a number of Good Sam stickers at strange
places to cover up dings. It also was missing about 8 inches of the lower
front body panel just in back of the right front wheel and the body panel under
the door was badly damaged as was the aluminum frame under the door.

While sitting out on the desert I started doing some of these repairs, Work
was somewhat slowed by a sore knee that limited my movement and at one point had
me flat on my back for 2 days after stepping out of the Yellow Submarine and
twisting the knee.

The first project was to repair the small body panel in back of the front
tire. I did this by first removing the panel under the door and using a
large crescent wrench and a hammer straitened the aluminum frame. Then I ground
out the cracks in this small panel from the back and lay in multiple layers of
glass cloth to repair the damage. After the back was repaired a little
sanding on the front and some body filler completed the panel and it was glued
and riveted back in place.

The real challenge was replacing the missing portions of the front body
panel. This was done by first feathering the edges around the missing
glass from the front using a small disk sander on a battery drill, then building
up a block of urethane insulating foam and gluing it in position from behind so
that it stuck out past the original surface. It was then sawed and sanded
into a rough shape and then using some cardboard templates cut to match the
other side the foam was sanded to a final shape that matched reasonable closely.

When the foam was properly shaped a couple layers of glass were added from
the front. After the first layers of glass had set up the foam was broken
and sanded out from behind and more layers of glass were added from the back to
give it lots of strength. the job was completed by using some fine auto
body putty called glazing compound and then sanded smooth

The same technique was used for smaller repairs where glass was missing.

Note that you must use urethane foam for this type of repair as other foams
will tend to melt when resin comes in contact with it. Also urethane foam
is very soft and easy to shape with sand paper, file or saw.